στερεός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ste.re.ós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ste.reˈos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ste.reˈos/^[1]

Forms

στερεός (stereós) m (feminine στερεᾱ́, neuter στερεόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It probably comes from *στερεϝός (*sterewós), a formation like ἐτεός (eteós, “true”) and κενεός (keneós, “empty”).^[2][3] Attic στερρός (sterrós) developed from it.^[2][3][4] It is built on the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff, firm”), seen in Old High German starablint (“blind”), Proto-Germanic *staraz (“stiff”) and Tocharian B ścīre (“hard”).^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has the adverb στερεῶς, “firmly”, in the Iliad (9.510), and the adjective for firm ox-hide shields (Iliad 17.493) and for hard stone or iron (Odyssey 19.494).^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is firm, hard or solid: of ground and bones (Euripides, Plato, Xenophon), of solid gold (Herodotus), and of strong cloth.^[7][6] Democritus, as Aristotle reports, set the solid against the void.^[6] Of money and measures it meant standard, of full value, and Euripides and Aristotle use it rarely for barren.^[2][1] Geometers used it for solid bodies and cubic numbers, whence στερεομετρία (stereometría) “stereometry” (the Epinomis, Aristotle).^[2] Figuratively it was stubborn, hard, cruel.^[1]

Its derivative στερέωμα (steréōma) meant a firm framework and the firmament.^[2] Modern Greek στερεός is learned, partly a semantic loan from French solide.^[8] French stère (1798), the cubic metre, comes from it.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for firm shields and hard stone.^[6][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for solid gold.^[6][10]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for barren.^[2][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses στερεομετρία.^[2][10]
• 1798 – French stère is formed from it.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Firm, solid, hard.^[6][7]
2. Tough, robust; stout.^[7]
3. (figurative) Stubborn; hard, cruel.^[1]
4. Of money: standard, of full value.^[1][2]
5. (geometry) Solid; cubic.^[2][1]
6. Barren.^[2]

Word family

• στερεότης (stereótēs)
• στερεόω (stereóō)

Related words

• στεῖρος (steîros)
• στερέω (steréō)
• στηρίζω (stērízō)
• English stereo-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge